drgloryboy:zipdog: Derek Force: So does this or does this not mean I have to wait in the ER for 3 hours because its filled with non-insured people who have the flu or a splinter?

Yes

This will mean you will be waiting for six hours because now everyone will at least have Medicaid insurance that no primary care doctors will take. This means 20 million more people will be going to the ER for both non-emergent concerns and for emergent conditions that they normally wouldn't have gone to the ER before the mandate for fear of going bankrupt. As an ER doc I will no longer be required to provide government mandated charity care as we as a nation will pay for those unable to afford insurance and will require those who can afford insurance to have it. Looks like I won't be having a problem staying busy at work.

I refuse to believe you are a doctor. Ohhhh, ER doctor. Actually, this means more people will be able to go to their family doctor rather than rely on the ER.

bhcompy:bdub77: Doesn't matter. Americans got health care. This is a win for the American people, not just Obama. Obama will now go down as the first president who got Americans health care. His legacy in that regard, not to mention countless other things he's done as president, will solidify him as one of the greats.

And yes I expect him to fully whip Romney's ass in November.

Err, Americans didn't get health care. They got told to buy it, or else. Single payer would be Americans getting health care. This is a clusterfark, and it is not "Americans getting healthcare".

MOFFIT (HERITAGE FOUNDATION): We've been honored by your request...to participate in giving our best advise and our technical assistance in designing a new and different kind of health insurance market. A market that is patient-centered and consumer-based, which will ease access to affordable coverage for thousands of Bay State citizens. This is new. It's a new market, where individuals and families will be able to own and control their health insurance and take it with them to from job to job... Nothing like it has ever been attempted anywhere else in the United States. So Massachusetts has raised the bar for every state in the union. And that's the applause you've given to your public officials here today is going to echo far beyond the hallow halls of this historic place.

DontMakeMeComeBackThere:Sad how many people here are happy, not because the court ruling was good, but just because the Republicans "lost".

You guys really need to get a life.

The country still hasn't recovered from the Republican wins of the 2000's. I think we're entitled to cheer when they stumble, particularly considering that they were trying to declare their own health care plan unconstitutional just because a Democrat implemented it.

bdub77:Doesn't matter. Americans got health care. This is a win for the American people, not just Obama. Obama will now go down as the first president who got Americans health care. His legacy in that regard, not to mention countless other things he's done as president, will solidify him as one of the greats.

And yes I expect him to fully whip Romney's ass in November.

WHISKY. TANGO. FOXTROT.

Really? Now Americans have health care? You mean no one in this country had health care prior to Obama? Is this what you really think?

Here's a clue: health insurance is not health care. All "universal" or "single-payer" systems work by rationing care. You want treatment for your rare cancer? Some government bureaucrat will determine that the treatment isn't cost effective, and you will either die waiting for it, or you'll never be given the chance. Not only do you end up dead in that scenario, but new and innovative treatments never get developed because said bureaucrat won't pay for them. Oh, but you have "free" health insurance - just not free health care.

Nothing is free. Health care is not free, and it can't be made free by government fiat. If the liberals got their way we'd have a system in which everyone but the ultra rich who could afford private insurace (or black-market care) is stuck waiting in lines for treatments they may never get.

If the statists got their way and we magically had an NHS-style system in the United States there would be riots in the streets because Americans do not take kindly to the government dictating to them what they can and cannot have. At least those Americans who still believe in the spirit of this nation's Founding, anyway.

This just in: The Topeka-based Popcorn Growers of America has issued an emergency bulletin, citing catastrophic shortages and pleading to any growers or traders holding reserves to release them immediately.

dognose4:So, the new tax on healthy people (that don't want or need health insurance) stands.

There is no such thing as a healthy person who doesn't need health insurance, and whether you want it or not is immaterial. Since you'll burden the taxpayers when you inevitably require care if you don't have insurance, the taxpayers have a right to tell you to get off their backs.

cameroncrazy1984:Ned Stark: cameroncrazy1984: Ned Stark: Obama's reelection is assured, major Republican victories in 16 and 18 likely as log term effects of bill become apparent. You read it here first.

You also said it would be struck down as unconstitutional. Excuse me if I decide to disregard your prediction.

I said I hoped it would be, and that it would be good for the country if it was.

That's not the same.

You also hope that the long-term effects of covering more people will be detrimental to the country. You're equally as wrong on that.

No, that one is, in fact, a prediction. You can tell from all the unqualified future-tense words.

And getting more people covered isn't the problem you ninny. Its the mandate+crap price controls that's going to be a problem.

Anagrammer:OK, So the HUGE Obama tax increase on everyone, including those who make under $250,000/yr. is legal.

I'd prefer that they decided against the HUGE Obama tax increase, but it looks like the HUGE Obama tax increase is here to stay.

Gosh, it seems like the obvious solution to that would be to request your Congresscritters to proportionately raise taxes on those making over $250,000/year, doesn't it? Rising tide lifts all boats. Sink and swim together?

I know I vote in my own self-interest, but if our past decade of runaway military spending and shoveling money by the metric ton to the "job creators" is working out for you then keep on keeping on.

cameroncrazy1984:Some nutball congressman called it the largest tax increase on the poor and middle class in American history. Notwithstanding the fact that the poor already get healthcare and likely will not be taxed.

Seriously. I was just chatting about this with my bartender friend. He wanted to know the implications of not having health insurance. I asked him "how much he gets back in taxes each year". He said "about a $1,000". I said "you'll get about half of that back". He said "sh:t, it's still cheaper than getting health insurance".

Thanks to SCOTUS upholding the HUGE Obama health care tax increase, Romney can now run on the promise of giving the largest tax cut in American history!

Bonus: Since the states are not required to participate, and can't be penalized for not participating, he can just do this by exempting all 50 states via Executive Order, in his first few minutes as president!

Kit Fister:Does it count if we opposed it because it was a bandaid rather than a true fix for the actual problems with our healthcare system, and a massive waste of money compared to actually fixing anything?

I don't know about history but if you base your decisions on reasoning like this rather than just "foxNews told me it was bad," then you have my respect, at least.

Why would they do that? Obama would get to appoint another justice, who would surely be more liberal than Roberts.

You have forgotten that most Freepers are also "Birthers". After Justice Roberts is impeached, they will continue their efforts to prove that President Obama is not Constitutionally eligible to hold office. Upon succeeding, which they are confident will occur at Any Day Now, all acts and appointments of Obama will be reversed and Sarah Palin will automatically become President.

Let me tell a story about why this is a good thing: 15 years ago my mother got cancer. She fought hard and won. Complete remission/surgery to remove lumps. Immediately after her surgery she was dropped from her insurance. Following her cancer, she continued to work (ran her own restaurant) but was not able to purchase health insurance. She tried everywhere, was willing to pay huge sums of money, but not a single insurer would give her a plan due to "preexisting conditions." 3 years ago she started to recognize the signs that something was wrong. She went for a blood test and boom, she had cancer again, but couldn't get it treated. Her only option was disability, something she had avoided last time because she wanted to continue to work. It took 2 years for her to get disability by that time her previously treatable cancer had become stage 4 terminal cancer. She is continuing to fight, about to start her 4th round of chemo/radiation. If she was able to get insurance before this happened not only would there be a good chance they could have cured it, but it would have been less expensive for the entire health care system. I'm telling that story to every idiot that says something stupid about the ruling today.